Wife. Mother. NICU Survivor. Photographer.

Potty Training

by momknowsjack on August 20, 2017

Ok, we’ve been “officially” potty train Jack for a full week now. He’s in undies all day long, except for nap time and bedtime. He’s yet to poop in the potty, only pee so far. He doesn’t like admitting when he has to pee and he’s had a few accidents. Typically he poops at nap time but only after he’s asleep.

Basically, I ask Jack about every 20 minutes if he needs to go potty, to which he responds either “NOOO” or “NO THANKS.” If it’s a “NO THANKS” I wait a few minutes and then ask again. If it’s a loud screeching “NOOO” I have to catch his little butt (because he’s running from me at this point) and carry him to the bathroom to pee and of course, he does.

Boy does he pee. My bathroom is a disgusting nightmare at the moment and I am not looking forward to scrubbing little boy pee off the bathroom floor on my hands and knees later this afternoon.

It’s a work in progress but in the meantime, we are saving money on pull ups so that’s something. I’m trying to make this transition to boy hood as easy as I can on Jack without feeling like a slacker. Jack is very sensitive and quick to admit to still being my baby, plus he’s very shy when he feels vulnerable.

I realize that Jack is 3-years-old and that other kids are potty trained by now, and Jack is also the size of a 5-year-old so the mom judgment is real. But Jack was also a preemie and has a habit of tackling each new milestone on his own terms. Usually, he waits until I’m at my wit’s end though.

We haven’t really done much when it comes to potty training Garrett. He just doesn’t seem very aware of needing to or not. Plus he doesn’t quite have the words yet. He does like to sit on the potty though, but only for a few seconds – then he gets distracted by the sink and he wants to turn on and off the faucet and talk to himself in the mirror. So… yeah… not a whole lot of progress has been made on the potty training front. And the mom shame is totally real, because he’s three and he’s huge – the size of a five year old like Jack – so people do give us a bit of crap about the fact that he’s not potty trained yet. However, I’ve noticed that most of them either don’t have kids, or their kids are in their 30s, so it’s been awhile since they’ve had to deal with this, and their kids are all neurotypical.

So it’s frustrating, and it’s a sore topic. But my husband and I have just decided that we would rather wait until he’s a little bit more ready, rather than butt heads over it, ya know?

And then today, Garrett followed me into the bathroom, and asked to sit on the toilet. And then he actually WENT to the bathroom on the potty. So he got lots of praise, and candy, and maybe, just maybe, this is the start of something good. We’ll see. *crossing fingers*